A slight figure hobbled across the uneven hillside, occasionally pausing to crouch beside a tree to pluck berries off the vines. One by one, she dropped them into her cloak, which hung like a bag in her arm. With the rest of her company asleep in camp further downhill, the peace of Evendim's woodland was a welcome rest. Yet over the sound of birds and the soft breeze of the wind, the wounded howl of a wolf is heard.
Merys paused, straightening up to look around. The deer nearby did not move, so she returned to her picking.
Slowly, the sounds of the wolf became clearer, nearer, the sounds of pain, emotional and physical. A grey wolf came into view at the top of the mountain path, limping down the roadside below Merys. Blood stained its grey fur, turning it to crimson, and its bloody muzzle sported a vicious look.
Merys turned and watched the wolf hobbling past. At first, she thought it was just some animal the men of her company were hunting, but then she remembered they were all asleep. Taking her staff into her hand, she quietly slipped down the hill, tracking her way up the trail of blood. Behind her, the wolf limps onward, slower and slower. Eventually, he simply gives in, collapsing with a muffled, pain cry. His form lay deathly still, if not for the wind that bristled his fur.
For Merys' part, she didn't quite recognize the wolf, though she should have. She only wondered what could wound and scare a wolf, and whether she should be concerned about it. Soon she discovers something to be concerned about, though entirely not what she expected.
It was Jhaqun. Leaning against a tree, his hand covered a bloody leg, from which material and skin had been savagely removed. His eyes drooped, head lowered.
When Merys catches sight of the Lossoth woodsman, she staggers and loses her voice a moment. Then she falls to her knees beside him and looks over his bloody body with confusion. "Jhaqun? What... what are you doing here? What happened to you?"
Jhaqun's head tilted pathetically to his right, his olive eyes slowly raising up to Merys. His jaw dropped, though not from shock, with no sound ever leaving his mouth. He lowered his gaze from her, and simply seemed saddened by his situation. The blood of his leg spewed up between the fingers that attempted to stop the bleeding.
Merys quickly unravelled the cloak from her shoulders. The crimson cloth spread out in her hands and she rapidly worked to bind Jhaqun's leg.
Jhaqun's free, pale hand raised to Merys in a feeble effort to cease her aid. He attempted to catch her eye contact by simply staring into her face as best he could, as the world around him grew darker. But Merys disregarded his attempt to stop her, curling the cloth round his leg and tying it closed. Only after this would she raise her face to look into his. She lifted a hand to brush back his hair, looking over his features with great worry.
"Just stay with me, Jhaqun," she said hurriedly. "Our camp is nearby. We can heal you as best we can."
Jhaqun gave a small shake of his head, as if to indicate no amount of aid could save him. By the pool of blood beneath his leg, flowing down the hill, he had been there for some time.
Reading his features, Merys shook her head. "You are not dying on me. Not now, Jhaqun."
Jhaqun lolled his head backwards, the bumping roughly against the bark of the tree. He gulped, preparing to speak, his tone husky, the sound of life within him vanquished.
"Jh-...Jhaqun-...Jhaqun wonders-...where...Pup...mphf…"
Merys began to piece together the situation in her mind, and her mouth gaped open. She cast a fearful look down the hill, then to him. "Did Pup do this?" she asked.
Jhaqun shook his head pale head slightly, black hair on his left side falling across his face.
"Jhaqun... loves Pup. Pup loves... Jhaqun."
Merys breathed relief and nodded. "Good. He's gone down the hill then. I saw him before I saw you."
"Go to...Pup. Pup have... hope. Jhaqun... none."
"No, I am not leaving you here. And I'm certainly not abandoning you for a wolf, no matter what wolf it is."
"Jhaqun... has bled... long."
"Jhaqun is strong," Merys urged. "We'll take care of you and you will recover. Please don't give up." Still, she could see as well as him that he had lost so much blood. Even the effort to move his face's features was a painful struggle to watch.
"Jhaqun... has bled... long. Jhaqun's blood... gone. Not coming... back."
Swallowing, Merys' looked over the man with darting, desperate eyes. Within her, her voice began to crack. "No... no, you can't die. Not here, not now. Not when we just found you again."
Jhaqun's free hand slowly moved from the blood and dirt, attempting to find one of hers.
She quickly wrapped her small fingers around the reaching hand.
He briefly gagged, his eyes blinking harder, but slower. With a gulp, he raised his gaze back up to her eyes.
"Jhaqun... sorry…"
Merys shook her head and gently ran her other hand over his disheveled hair.
"Jhaqun sorry for... abandoning. Jhaqun's people... needed Jha-...Jhaqun."
"You were where you needed to be," Merys whispered. "Where you wanted to be. We… we missed you. But we're alright."
Jhaqun flickered his gaze downward, and briefly removed the hand pressed to his ravaged leg. Even with Merys' cloak around it, the blood had already soaked through. It barely disrupted the flow. He quickly pressed his hand back down. His eyes rolled back sadly as tears began to form, his gruesome condition reintroduced to him.
"Merys... Merys stay with...with Jhaqun…"
Merys nodded quickly. "I'm not leaving you."
Jhaqun's eyes drooped lower and lower, as unconsciousness sought to claim him, and he gives in to the attraction of peace. Then, suddenly, Pup's sorrowful cry echoed through the chilly forest, and Jhaqun seemed to return to the land of the living. He turned his head slightly, the cry for help redefining his purpose to live.
Merys looked away from Jhaqun, down the hill for the wolf. She swallowed and let out a yell, "Pup! Pup, come here!"
Jhaqun flinched slightly to her shouting, slowly crawling away from the tree with a wince as he attempted to explain. Merys reached out to try to steady him, not sure if she should prevent him from moving or encourage it as a fight against dying.
"Jhaqun... drift from alive to... to something else... Pup leave him... Pup hurt... Pup not far…"
"I-I'll go get him, but what if you... you cannot die while I'm gone, alright?"
"Jhaqun... Jhaqun will not do this."
Merys noded fast and scrambled to her feet before hurrying down the hill after the trail of blood.
Pup lay on his side, his grey chest barely rising and falling. He, too, suffered from a monstrous bite to one of his legs, stripped of fur and flesh. Merys stooped down next to the bloody, wilted wolf. She gently hushed him, afraid to touch him in this state, but not feeling she had much choice. "Come, Pup. Have to stay alive for Jhaqun." Gingerly, she curled her arms around him and lifted him up. He bled upon her, but with her cloak gone to Jhaqun, she lacked any material for bandages. The wolf whimpered at the touch, but was too weak to react otherwise.
Rushing back, Merys sniffed back the tears in her eyes and ran unsteadily up the hill until she reached Jhaqun. She carefully sat Pup down on the grass beside him, before looking up into Jhaqun's face with a terror that he may already be dead. Merys rushes back, as best she can with the large burden in her arms.
Instead, Jhaqun managed a small smile, laying his hand atop Pup's slowly moving chest. He then tilted his dull gaze over to Merys.
"Jhaqun... Jhaqun scared…"
Merys gulped and nodded faintly. "Me too."
Jhaqun's bottom lip quivered, tears slowly beginning to roll down his cheeks. They twinkled somewhat beautifully in his terror of death.
"Merys... Merys look after Pup?"
Merys blinked away the tears in her own eyes and nodded once more. "Of course. Gladly. But…" She bowed her head, unable to control her voice. "You can't die, Jhaqun!"
He raised a hand from the soil, the grains of dust falling from his hand. He stretches it out toward Merys slowly, toward her face. "Jhaqun…" His hand suddenly dropped before his fingers could reach her, and hits the ground with a dull thud. A sigh escapes him, and Jhaqun's eyes stare without seeing.
Merys gasped and reached out to his arms, grabbing hold of him to try to shake him awake. "Jhaqun?.... Jhaqun!"
Jhaqun lifeless body was shaken, but his expression never changed. Only one of vacancy. Pup whimpered clearer, sensing the disturbance and the loss of his best friend.
Merys rattled with rising sobs and stroked her hand along Jhaqun's face. She whispered her protests, though she knew there was little hope of reviving him.
From the camp below, Kaiju approached, the Lossoth who had joined the party in its journey south. She clutched her spear in one hand and knelt beside Merys, putting her other hand on her shoulder. "The ice roamer is no more… He will be rejoined with his ancestors."
Merys closed her eyes as the tears continued to run. She shook her head in silent protest for awhile and opened her blurred eyes on his fallen hand.
Kaiju looked down at the body for a moment in silence. He lays as motionless as the tree behind him, save a few strands of grey-black hair dancing sadly with the bitter wind. Kaiju removed her hand from Merys' shoulder and knelt beside Jhaqun, muttering a prayer in their home tongue and placing a hand on his forehead. She gives him one last, solemn bow, and then turns to the wolf. Afraid of being bitten, she cautiously examined the bite.
Slowly, Merys gathered herself and mechanically moved her hands to unravel her cloak from Jhaqun's leg. Shifting to one side, she forced herself to look away from the body and down at Pup. Her eyes darts over his wounds while she works to tear her cloak into strips. "He... he wants us to see to his wolf," she chokes out in a low voice.
Pup is too weak to respond in any way other than whimpers and cries, as not even the scent of his friend Merys can soothe him.
"The question will be what is its fate," Kaiju says. "If he does survive."
Merys began wrapping the strips of cloth around Pup's wound, as tightly as she dared. She felt inadequate to comfort him for his loss, barely able to comprehend it herself. After tying the bandage, she swallowed enough air to speak. "He left the Pup to me."
Kaiju stepped around it and pets the wolf gently. "Can you take care of it?"
Pup remained still, his black eyes staring, confused as to why he hurt so much.
Merys shook her head. "I don't know. He does... does listen to me. If he'll listen to anyone now."
Kaiju spoke soft, comforting words to the creature. She shared a sort of bond with its kind, that much being apparent. "I pray such an impressive creature is kept in good hands."
Merys sighed and rubbed the tears from her face. "I don't know how he'll be in Bree. In town. He's only a step beyond a wild wolf."
Kaiju glanced to Merys, a calm, solemn expression in her eyes. "I will take him, if you cannot."
Merys looked up at Kaiju, then down at the wolf. "Jhaqun asked me to take care of him. He trusted me."
"It is your choice," Kaiju said. "But in our prime, the Valkoinen Susia were known for beast mastery. This is a creature of my home."
Merys nods. "I know... it makes sense. But it's Pup's choice."
"Ultimately. But he knows that there is never such thing as a lone wolf."
Merys looked down at the wolf and stroked his head gently. "He won't be alone."
"I will take the man for proper ceremony. I think he'd want that, at least. Take Pup back to the others." Kaiju lifted the man's body over her shoulder before making her way north, a little bit closer to the lands of ice, to see him to his ancestors.
Merys leaned down to scoop the wolf up in her arms once more, drawing him close to her. The Pup whimpers as he's carried, but finds comfort in her arms. His days with Jhaqun are at a close.
Merys hushed the wolf like a child and walked down the hill. "Come, Pup, you are in my pack now."
